[Colorado Expat]

Greetings, all!

I've had a 2011 128i for a bit over a year now, and it's becoming my favorite car of all time... (Previous Euro cars include Volvo, VW, Opel, and Ford Capri.) I'm located in the 4 Corners, which means that my nearest dealer is over 3 hours away (in Albuquerque), and I've yet to find a BMW-knowledgeable shop in the area. (My new Foxwell scanner has proven quite useful!)

Late last week, the battery failed rather drastically, and took out the FRM module, it appears; I'll be trailering it to the dealer in the next few days.

Now to the question "How do I do this, and what are the pitfalls?"... One of my hobbies is amateur radio ("Ham radio"); I've been toying with the idea of installing a dual-band transceiver (144 MHz / 440 MHz), with a power output of ~50 watts. Given the apparent fragility of some of the cars' computer modules, I'm now a bit hesitant, as it will obviously be more than a "find a 12V hot wire, good ground, and run the antenna coax" installation.

I'll be asking at the dealer, but wanted to see if any Hams here could provide input as well; I'm especially concerned that RF feedback could seriously confuse the car's computers, perhaps even bricking them.

Also - any recommendations for shops in the 4 Corners? (FYI, where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, & New Mexico meet - yeah, a long way from anywhere.)